Another strong month for job gains
The change in employment for December was revised up by 37,000 from again of 147,000 to 184,000, and January was revised upward by 48,000 from 225,000 to a gain of 273,000.
The unemployment rate held steady at 3.5%. In 2019, job growth averaged 178,000 per month.
Construction added 42,000 jobs in February, following a similar gain (up 49,000) in January. In 2019, job gains averaged 13,000 per month. In February, employment gains occurred among specialty trade contractors, rising 26,000 and residential building, growing by 10,000.
"The construction sector is adding jobs at a solid pace of 3% from one year ago, which is twice as fast as the rest of the economy," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Employment in other major industries, including mining, manufacturing, whole sale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and information, changed little over the month, the Bureau reported.
But Yun says that the latest job data must be looked at cautiously despite strong growth.
“Another fabulous month of job creations in America," he said. "However, this data is before convention and travel cancellations by many businesses as a precautionary measure against coronavirus spread," Yun said.
The economist points to the months that followed September 11, 2001 when subsequent travels were greatly reduced, net job losses reached 1 million in five months and then continued throughout 2002.
"No event is ever the same, though; the current employment situation looks to be in better shape. Because of the extreme tight job market condition of a 3.5% unemployment rate (compared to 5.0% in September 2001), companies will be more reluctant to let workers go, knowing finding workers has been difficult," Yun said. "Any positive news on vaccine discovery will quickly return market conditions to a strong position."
Average hourly earnings in February for all employees increased by 9 cents to $28.52. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.0%.
Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 8 cents to $23.96 in February.
The average workweek for all employees rose by 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours in February. In manufacturing, the workweek increased by 0.2 hour to 40.7 hours, and overtime edged up by 0.1 hour to 3.2 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.1 hour to 33.7 hours.
The full Employment Situation Summary for February 2020 is available here.